5.01.2012

Six Maggie Facts

{Maggie sticking close while watching Oswald yesterday; she wants to be in physical contact with me almost all of the time.}

1. She's a little chatterbox. For a few months we tried and tried to get her to say "dada" and it seemed like she got so close, but we were afraid of jumping the gun by claiming it as her first word. Then it seemed like one day, she just got it. She now says "da-dee" {or sometimes "did-ee"}, "mama" {my favorite}, the most adorable little "uh-oh" whenever anything falls on the floor, "ah!" {for eye}, and a whispered "chi-chi" {for Jesus} at pictures in frames on the wall. When she looks out our back window and sees the swings she says "whee! whee!"

She's good at imitating, so if you tell her the name of something enough times, she'll often repeat it back to you, but I don't think she could come up with the word again on her own. She's said "eh" for egg, "bo" for ball, "nana" or sometimes just "na" for banana, and "mo" for more.

2. We're also working on some signs; raising the roof is her version of "all done," and very occasionally she'll condescend to pat herself on the chest as a reluctant "please." We try "book" and "more," but I think they're too close to clapping {which she does whenever someone else claps, says the word "clap," or says "yay!"} for her to be able to differentiate at this point.

3. She learned how to crawl shortly after her first birthday. We've talked about it with her pediatrician, and we know that she's just on her own timeline, but boy have we made fun of her for starting to crawl when most of her peers were learning to walk! It's such a welcome development for her to be able to move herself {almost} wherever she likes. She and Max often crawl off and play together on their own, which I think is just so awesome. She's taken to suddenly crawling as fast as she can across the floor while yelling "ahhhh!" which we interpret as "charge!" She's good at pulling up, cruising, and climbing all the way to the top of the stairs, but can't quite manage to get onto the couch by herself yet {Max can}.

4. Her most favorite thing to do is read books. All the books; she's even pulled off some of our adult books off the bookshelves in the office and asked me to read them to her. {I love encouraging her to read, but I don't think she's ready for Michael Crichton's Timeline just yet.} She'll crawl into my lap {or what's left of my lap; she always wants to sit on one of my legs while we read} and gesture at the books she sees until I start reading. She loves to turn the pages, but doesn't always wait until I'm finished with one before moving on to the next. She'll often get bored of a book halfway through and adamantly close it and gesture at other books instead.

Some of our best-loved books are: Brown Bear, Brown Bear {and its sequels}, Each Peach Pear Plum, The Runaway Bunny, Where the Wild Things Are, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, I Love You Through and Through, The Biggest Kiss, Mr. Brown Can Moo, and Harry the Dirty Dog.

5. Her second favorite thing to do is point at my eyes, nose, mouth, and teeth in turn and have me say what they are. She actually loves to point/poke her finger into all eyes, including her dolls' eyes, eyes in books, spots in books that she interprets as eyes, and {unfortunately for him} Max's eyes. Even though she's getting pretty good at finding others' eyes, she often points/sticks her finger in her own ear and mistakenly says "ah!"

6. My favorite thing for her to do {it's seriously the most adorable thing I've ever seen}:

I'm Mary, and this is my blog where I write about my life and other exciting things. I live in North Carolina with my husband and four kiddos: Maggie Elaine, Captain Max, Lucy Eleanore, and Leo James. Read more...